


handle with care

by bananaquit



Category: Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Canon, camtodd, t for sex mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 21:20:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13749456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananaquit/pseuds/bananaquit
Summary: On gift receipts, photographs, moving out, and moving in.





	handle with care

**Author's Note:**

> Credit to @currymoose and @fivecenturiesofflannel on tumblr for helping me to plot the fic and providing nearly all the details and headcanons it's based around. I just organized and connected their thoughts.

“What are you doing!?”

Todd froze where he was with one hand poised above the trash can at the sound of Cameron’s cry. Cameron gestured accusingly to the small file folder clutched in Todd’s hand as if Todd were about to drop his most prized possession into a volcano.

“I’m tr- w-” Todd’s mouth opened and closed a few times as he tried to come up with a suitable reply. “I’m throwing this away.” he finally managed, looking confused. The two stood in their shared college dorm room with cardboard boxes piled around them, almost ready to move out after their recent graduation. The last of the packing was nearly finished, but they weren’t quite done sorting through everything just yet.

Cameron stepped decisively forward and snatched the folder out of Todd’s hand. “Those are the gift receipts! What if you want to return something?” Todd let out a sigh, rolling his eyes at Cam’s near-panicked tone and worried frown. Cameron had a meticulous filing system for all their receipts so he could document their finances at the end of each month, including the folder he now held. This folder was different from the rest in that it held receipts dating back years. It held gift receipts for every single gift he’d ever purchased for Todd (just in case Todd didn’t like whatever he bought).

“If I wanted to return something, I would have done it by now. You don’t have to keep them.” Todd assured him.  
  
“You could change your mind.” said Cameron. Todd dropped the folder into the garbage. “Todd!” Cameron yelped, diving into the trash can to try to retrieve it. Todd shook his head and reached under his bed to pull something out.

“Cam,” he said softly. Cameron stopped what he was doing when he noticed the change in Todd’s tone and stood up only to have a cardboard box with paper hearts taped onto it gently thrust into his arms. He looked between the box and Todd’s smile, taken aback. “I’m not returning anything.” said Todd.

Cameron looked down at the box again. _FROM CAM - HANDLE WITH CARE_ was scrawled in permanent marker across the top. He opened the top flap to look at the contents. Inside was everything Cameron had ever given him. The oldest gifts were the most formal, necessities Todd often forgot about but Cameron always noticed; pens now empty, pencils now stubs, notebooks that were now full, simple stationary and desk supplies (but never a desk _set_ , always distinctly different from anything in that stupid desk set). Todd had angrily flung his old desk set out the window because it reminded him too much of Neil, so the replacement supplies had been much appreciated. The recent gifts were more personal; cat figurines, books of poetry, buttons and pins of all kinds, even tiny notes Cameron had left him to tell him where he was and that he loved him. It was all there. Cameron could’ve cried.

He swallowed. “Alright.” Cameron said. Todd kissed him on the cheek and Cameron got so light-headed he was surprised he didn’t faint. “I guess we _don’t_ need them.”

 

* * *

 

Todd let out a breath of relief as he set down the last of the boxes they’d lugged from their tan station wagon up to their new apartment. They’d moved in all the furniture ahead of time, which Todd was grateful for as he collapsed onto the couch. Todd hoped they’d be able to get a house eventually, but this was all Todd’s job shelving records and Cam’s internship would pay for until they could find stable careers (their respective majors were literature and business).

Cameron set down the polaroid he’d just taken of Todd standing among the boxes, leaving the photo on the table to develop. He liked to document everything, and though Todd was a bit camera shy, he’d grown used to Cameron’s habit. Cameron took a seat beside Todd. He grabbed a box he’d set on the table and started to rifle through it. Todd watched in curious silence until Cam pulled out a wide book that Todd couldn’t recall seeing before.

Cameron cleared his throat. “I put together something.” he managed, putting the box back on the table, placing the book in Todd’s lap, and scooting closer to him. Todd looked to him before slowly and hesitantly opening to the first page. He felt his eyes go misty when he saw what was there. It was a scrapbook of photos from back at Welton, of days long past. Photos of them and of the rest of the now-disbanded Dead Poets Society (and _Keating,_ **_Keating..._ ** ) back when they were all still friends and all a little less broken, when they were still on speaking terms with Charlie, when Neil was still _alive_ …

Todd’s vision blurred with tears and made him unable to focus on the face of the boy who’d been everything to him, who’d made his birthday a happy one, who’d brightened his whole life with his energy, his smile, who’d welcomed him with open arms and helped to teach him bravery, who he’d shared happy, sloppy kisses and warm, caring touches (and sometimes other, more secret kinds of touches, touches late at night between heavy breaths and quiet whispers and low moans) and stolen glances and occasionally a bed with, who he’d loved more than anything, who’d left them all shattered so suddenly that freezing December night.

Cameron grabbed his hand and squeezed as he began talking Todd through each photo, rattling off the who, when, and where of each individual photo even though he knew Todd likely remembered the circumstances. Most were school-issue group shots, though there were some that weren’t. Knox and Charlie has both abused the camera privileges they had as a result of being on the school paper to take photos most definitely unrelated to the publication. Knox had given some of the photos he’d secretly kept to Todd after Neil’s death, feeling Todd would appreciate them more (Todd had asked where they were when they were packing, panicked, but Cameron had assured him they’d already been “packed”). Charlie had kept a secret stash of pictures as well, but he’d left them behind when he was expelled, perhaps forgotten in all his sadness and anger, perhaps intentionally abandoned. Whatever the reason, Cameron had stumbled upon the hiding spot for the pictures and kept them, since reaching out to Charlie wasn’t much of an option anymore.

Cameron pretended there weren’t tears at the corners of his eyes as they slowly progressed page by page through the album. They flipped through pictures from their days together in college (they’d only gone to the same school because Cameron had refused scholarships to more prestigious universities in order to stay with Todd, much to the bewilderment of his oblivious and outraged parents), which Cameron had dutifully recorded with his Polaroid. The book wasn’t even half-full.

“This is blank.” Todd said dumbly when he flipped to the first bare page, confused.

“The rest of the pages are for us,” Cameron explained, reaching over to grab the now-developed photo from off the table and using it to bookmark the blank page until they unpacked some tape to properly add it to the book. “Because we still have a lot to fill them with.”

Cam’s words sent Todd into a fit of sobbing for reasons neither of them understood. Todd couldn’t tell whether he was feeling happiness or sadness, but at the moment, he was too overcome to figure it out. Cam set the book on the table and Todd collapsed into his chest. Cameron said nothing, afraid he’d only make things worse, and instead simply held Todd as he let it all out. Cameron had never been an especially touchy person, but he was more than fine with cuddling Todd close until his sobs died down and his breathing evened out. He squeezed Todd’s arm before rubbing his hand up and down it as Todd raised his head to look at him.

Still unsure what to say, Cameron stuck an arm into the box he’d pulled the scrapbook from. “I, ah, also got you some more socks. Noticed yours had holes again.” he said, pulling a pair of socks from the box. Todd gave a weak laugh (because his boyfriend was such an adorable dork, wow) and leaned up to press a kiss to Cam’s lips. He drew back, his hand finding Cameron’s once more, and they both smiled.


End file.
